I just read a great story about an organization I had never heard about before. It’s called the Snowball Express.
Among the hordes of children who trampled Southfork Ranch on Thursday, Kenneth Landrus wore his dead father’s Army-issued sun hat. It came about level with Giuranna’s shoulder as the two wandered side-by-side among the fields.
“Where do you want to walk?” Giuranna asked.
The 10-year-old didn’t want to walk anywhere. With a toothy grin, he led Giuranna on a series of sprints across the ranch, finally letting the Marine pass so he could tackle him from behind.
Everywhere he went on the ranch, kids flowed to Giuranna out of the chaos – the girls greeting him with hugs, the boys with wrestling holds. A TAPS mentor for a little over a year, he sometimes forgot at which event he had met a child, remembering them better by how they lost a parent.
Throughout the four-day program, children occasionally broke down, and a mentor would take them aside to talk through their feelings.
On Friday, as he and Kenneth stood in line for a game at the Dallas Convention Center, the boy randomly asked: “Did I ever tell you how my dad died?”
I’m not sure what you are doing for Christmas, but I wish you the merriest of holidays. I hope perhaps there might be something you can do for a kid that’s been through a lot. I put a link to this great organization on the blog. Do what you can please. Merry Christmas!
Mentors offer shoulder to cry on for military kids who lose parents (Dallas News)
